Catalyst Quotes

22 Jan 2019

“You Are Here Meaningfully / Have a Big Story”

“I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.” (Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems)

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“There are things known
and there are things unknown
and in between are the doors.” (Jim Morrison, Letters from Joe)

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“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.” (Joseph Campbell)

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“Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny — he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally — you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The whole intends to do something through you.” (Osho)

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“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” (Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist)

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“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” (Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft)

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“I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve.
This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret.” (Anthony Robbins)

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What, exactly, should you do now?
You can choose to lead, or not.
You can choose to have faith, or not.
Are there thousands of reasons why you,
of all people, aren’t the right one to lead?
Why you don’t have the resources or the authority
or the genes or the momentum to lead?
Probably. So what?
You still get to make the choice.
But once you choose to lead, you’ll discover that it’s not so difficult.” (Seth Godin, Tribes – We Need YOU to Lead Us)

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“You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other, and God damn it, you just refuse to let it get to you. You fight. You cry. You curse. Then you go about the business of living. That’s how I’ve done it. There’s no other way.” (Elizabeth Taylor)

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“If you’re going to have a story, have a big story.” (Joseph Campbell, The Storyteller’s Secret)

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18 Jan 2019

“The Road to Wisdom / Your Intentions Create the Reality”

“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask, ‘What if I fall?’
Oh, but my darling,
What if you fly?” (Erin Hanson)

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“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” (Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet)

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“Sometimes, divine revelation simply means adjusting your brain to hear what your heart already knows.” (Dan Brown)

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The Road to Wisdom

“The road to wisdom?
Well, it’s plain and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.” (Piet Hein)

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“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known.” (Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters)

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“Your intentions create the reality that you experience.” (Gary Zukav)

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“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” (Dr. Seuss)

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“The Little Boy and the Old Man

Said the little boy, ‘Sometimes I drop my spoon.’
Said the old man, ‘I do that too.’
The little boy whispered, ‘I wet my pants.’
‘I do that too,’ laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, ‘I often cry.’
The old man nodded, ‘’So do I.’
‘But worst of all,’ said the boy, ‘”it seems
Grown-ups don’t pay attention to me.’
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
‘I know what you mean,’ said the little old man.’” (Shel Silverstein)

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“to live in this world

you must be able
to do three things
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.” (Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Volume One)

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“life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis” (e. e. cummings)

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17 Jan 2019

“Life is Funny; Laugh Like Hell”

“If you want an interesting party sometime, combine a few cocktails and a box of crayons.” (Robert Fulghum)

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“Three life rules guaranteed to bring you peace in life.
1. Keep your mouth shut.
2. Keep your big mouth shut.
3. Keep your stupid big mouth shut.” (Peter Weisz, The Universal Mind)

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” (Mae West)

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“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.” (W. C. Fields)

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“If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?” (George Carlin)

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“A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called “The Road Less Traveled”, describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used. The poet found that the road less traveled was peaceful but quite lonely, and he was probably a bit nervous as he went along, because if anything happened on the road less traveled, the other travelers would be on the road more frequently traveled and so couldn’t hear him as he cried for help. Sure enough, that poet is dead.” (Lemony Snicket, The Slippery Slope)

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“When I think of loyalty of pets, I think of Adam and Eve leaving paradise, followed by their dog.” (Robert Brault, Reflections)

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“From a diary: ‘Turning 80 this year – a first-ever for me. Will be new at it and will doubtless make beginner mistakes. But looking forward to the opportunity.’” (Robert Brault, Reflections)

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“If you can’t do anything about it, laugh like hell.” (David Cook)

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16 Jan 2019

“It Comes Down to People. Believe in Them.”

“Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking, we can get on with creating the future.” (James Bertrand)

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“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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“If you wish others to believe in you, you must convince them that you believe in them.” (Harvey McKay)

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“The deepest principle of human nature is a craving to be appreciated.” (William James)

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“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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“They call it coaching, but it is teaching. You do not just tell them … you show them the reasons.” (Vince Lombardi)

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“Everything in business comes down to PEOPLE. Where in business can we escape the impact of human care, human creativity, human commitment, human frustration, and human despair? There is no reason for anything in business to exist if it does not serve the needs of people.” (Bruce Cryer)

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Short Course in Leadership:

1. Make a list of things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to others, ever.
2. Make another list of things done for you that you loved. Do them for others, always.” (Dee Hock)

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“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” (Peter Drucker)

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“Let’s make a dent in the universe.” (Steve Jobs)

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10 Jan 2019

“Who Will Stop Me?”

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” (Aristotle)

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“The Voice
There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long,
‘I feel this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong.
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What’s right for you — just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.’” (Shel Silverstein)

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“There is no coincidence, and nothing happens ‘by accident.’ Each event and adventure is called to your Self by your Self in order that you might create and experience Who You Really Are. All that is required is to know this. For you are the creator of your own reality, and life can show up in no other way for you than the way in which you think it will.” (Conversations with God, An Uncommon Dialogue by Neal Walsch)

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“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” (Maya Angelou)

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“You have power over your mind – not outside events.
Realize this, and you will find strength.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations)

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“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” (Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera)

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“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” (Benjamin Spock)

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“[Dean] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”
[Roark] “That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?” (Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead)

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04 Dec 2018

“One Day or Day One. You Decide.”

“The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles – preferably of his own making – in order to triumph.” (Garth Stein)

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“Wisdom backed by courage makes greatness. Because they are immortal, they immortalize. Each person is as great as his or her mind, and to the ones who knows, everything that is possible. A person without knowledge is a world in darkness. Understanding and will are the eyes and the hands, without courage, the mind is dead.” (Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom)

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“If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.” (Thomas Merton)

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“’Be yourself, everyone else is taken.’

I don’t agree with Oscar Wilde on this one.
In fact, almost no one else is taken. You definitely can’t (and shouldn’t) be someone who already exists, but the number of slots left is infinite.
Each of us can work to become the person we seek to be. A better version of the person we are right now.
Doing work we’re proud of for people we care about.” (Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog, November 18, 2018)

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“I want to continue being crazy;
Living my life, the way I dream it,
And not the way the other people want it to be.” (Paulo Coelho)

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“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.” (Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist)

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“One day or day one. You decide.” (Paulo Coelho)

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08 Oct 2018

“Be Great in Little Things”

“In the end, your life is only a dash between two dates on a tombstone.

What’s your dash gonna be?” (Chris W. Werner)

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“We are what we believe we are.” (C.S. Lewis)

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“When we accept small wonders, we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders.” (Tom Robbins)

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“People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.” (Edmund Hillary)

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“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” (Carlos Castaneda)

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“I keep wondering, how many people do you need to be, before you can become yourself.” (Iain S. Thomas)

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“Be great in little things, and you will be given opportunity to do big things.” (Richard Shivers)

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“I can’t believe God put us on this earth to be ordinary.” (Lou Holtz)

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“Be great in little things.” (St. Francis Xavier)

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24 Sep 2018

“The Future Starts Today / Autograph Your Work”

“Leadership is not magnetic personality – that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people – that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. (Peter Drucker)

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“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” (Theodore M. Hesburgh)

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“There are only 3 colors, 10 digits, and 7 notes; it’s what we do with them that’s important.” (Ruth Ross)

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“What we think or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do.” (John Ruskin)

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“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.” (Unknown)

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“If you can dream it, you can do it.” (Walt Disney)

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“I didn’t get where I am by thinking about it or dreaming about it. I got there by doing it.” (Estée Lauder)

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“The future starts today, not tomorrow.” (Pope John Paul II)

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11 Sep 2018

“Leadership / Be Afraid and Do It Anyway”

“A monumental question for leaders in any organization to consider is: How much greatness are we willing to grant people?” (The Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander)

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“Leaders focus on the soft stuff. People. Values. Character. Commitment. A Cause.
All of the stuff that was supposed to be too ‘goo-goo’ to count in business. Yet, it’s the stuff that real leaders take care of first. And forever.
That’s why leadership is an art, not a science. If leadership were just about hitting your numbers, about driving the troops to meet their quotas, then leadership would just be a math problem. But leadership is a human mystery.” (Tom Peters)

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“The most effective way to teach anyone what we would like them to know is through behavior, not words. … People of action, those who make a difference in life, those whom we most admire, all seem to know the truth of the ancient wisdom (of Emerson), ‘What you do speaks so loud, I can’t hear what you say.’

Be a doer. And in the process, you will do more to teach others ….” (Wayne W. Dyer, Wisdom of the Ages)

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“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” (e. e. cummings)

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“Zig Ziglar used to tell a story about a baseball team on a losing streak. On the road for a doubleheader, the team visited a town that was home to a famous faith healer. While the guys were warming up, the manager disappeared. He came back an hour later with a big handful of bats. ‘Guys, these bats were blessed and healed by the guru. Our problems are over.’

According to the story, the team snapped out of their streak and won a bunch of games. Some people wonder, ‘Did the faith healer really touch the bats, or was the manager making it up?’ Huh? Does it matter? (Seth Godin)

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“We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.” (Dale Carnegie)

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“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” (Dr. Spock)

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“Be afraid and do it anyway.” (Rachel Muir)

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29 Aug 2018

“And That’s Life, Isn’t It?”

“This life is like a roller-coaster; once you are strapped-in and the ride has started, you aren’t getting off.” (Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life)

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“Whenever you think ‘nothing is working for me,’ always ask ‘but am I working for me?’ your answer is crucial. Get up, dust yourself off, and try again.” (Unknown)

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“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are ── or, as we are conditioned to see it.” (Stephen Covey)

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“Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.” (Stephen Covey)

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“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.” (Rumi)

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“But I believe good things happen every day. I believe good things happen even when bad things happen. And I believe on a happy day like today, we can still feel a little sad. And that’s life, isn’t it?” (Gabrielle Zevin, Elsewhere)

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